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What's ahead for retail in 2015I Want It Now - Same day delivery is officially on steroids. Get it in
gear or get left in the dust. Shoppers want their "stuff" in a nanosecond, or so
it seems. Gone are the times when ordering something online meant waiting two to
three business days. Who has that kind of patience today? Where Is It Now,
Where Is It Going, When Will It Get There? - Inventory management is the new
black, and its smarter sibling - distributed order management - is emerging as
one of the biggest levers retailers need to pull in the quest for omnichannel
success. Inventory management is one of the secret ingredients in the
omnichannel soufflé; without it the strategy is doomed to collapse. Rapid
fulfillment is a hurdle companies will have to address and drop-ship is gaining
ground. Today's environment requires fulfillment flexibility and accurate and
consistent information; without it, everything falls apart. Hey You, Migrate
to the Cloud - Squeezed budgets - combined with the need for speed and
soaring consumer expectations - will underpin the rise of the cloud as an IT
essential. The cloud allows retailers to move closer to the goal of greater
connectivity in the workplace, e.g. managing files, internal messaging,
scheduling and business intelligence and analytics. Mobile Payments: Will It
Blend - This segment will reach an inflection point with dramatic change to
follow, but the path to large-scale adoption is steep. Worldwide mobile payments
are projected to grow by 61 percent to 47 billion transactions between 2013 and
2015. Mobile payments must be monitored closely. You Ain't Seen Nothing -
Tired of being the underdog, stores will strike back with technology-infused
environments that turn "traditional" on its ear. Six Degrees of Retail - The
Internet of Things will become ubiquitous in the months to come as network
costs, radios and sensors tumble in price and storage availability rises.
Connecting the Dots - Big Data will get bigger and supply chains will get
more complex as serving the needs of today's shoppers and business partners -
operating in diverse contexts and environments - creates endless data streams.
Imagining the Future - There are overarching megatrends and then there
are lots of microtrends - all with the potential to shake up retail in the
coming year.
nrf.com

Bebe Stores confirms payment card security breach
Bebe said it detected a hacking attack on its payment processing system that
could have compromised data from cards swiped in its stores in the United
States, Puerto Rico and U.S. Virgin Islands. The exposed data may have included
cardholder names, account numbers, expiration dates and verification codes, the
women's apparel retailer said on Friday. Bebe, which also operates stores in
Canada, said the affected transactions were made between Nov. 8 and Nov. 26, the
day before Thanksgiving. Bebe said online transactions were not affected. We
moved quickly to block this attack and have taken steps to further enhance our
security measures," Chief Executive Jim Wiggett said in a statement on Friday.
Bebe said it has engaged a leading computer security firm and worked with them
to block the attack from continuing. The retailer will credit monitoring
services for one year at no cost to customers who made a purchase using a
payment card at a U.S., Puerto Rico or U.S. Virgin Islands store during the
breach time frame. According to the security blog Krebs on Security, numbers for
cards that had been used at Bebe stores in the U.S. between Nov. 18-28 were
being offered for sale on an underground website called Goodshop in a "Happy
Winter Update" on Dec. 1. Card prices ranged from $10 -$27.
reuters.com
chainstoreage.com

DOJ To Launch New Cybercrimes Unit
The U.S. Department of Justice plans to create a dedicated cybercrimes unit in
the wake of recent hacking incidents. Assistant Attorney General Leslie R.
Caldwell said the new unit would be a part of the Criminal Division's Computer
Crime and Intellectual Property Section, or CCIPS, which was created in 1996.
law360.com

New wave of credit card fraudsters opt for in-store pickup option - 'Site to
Store' Becomes 'Fraudster at Your Door' Taking advantage of the
loosened security that comes with the holiday gift-buying rush, recent traffic
on underground card fraud websites indicates that payment card fraud rings are
using data from major retail system breaches in a campaign of fraudulent online
purchases. But instead of directing the shipments to drop points that might draw
the attention of fraud detection algorithms and law enforcement, they're taking
advantage of the latest "gotta have it now" approach to online shopping-the
"in-store pickup" option. Some of the new fraud campaigns this year are
targeting major retailers with in-store pickup options. "What's interesting now
is that they're getting brazen," said Alex Heid, Security Scorecard's chief
research officer, in an interview with Ars. "They're walking right to the
store." The shift comes as stores have begun to frequently block shipments to
addresses other than a credit card's billing address, and the practice of using
a controlled delivery point to collect fraudulent purchases has become
increasingly risky for fraud rings. The fraud rings, which are mostly operated
from within Eastern Europe aim to use stolen credit card numbers to purchase
items that can quickly be resold for near retail value. This sort of fraud has
been aided and abetted by recent credit card breaches that have leaked not just
card data but the billing address ZIP code associated with them. Using the ZIP
code data, fraudsters can target retail locations close to the billing address
of a stolen card number-reducing the likelihood that fraud prevention systems
will block the transaction. The shift to in-store purchases is partially because
the old ways of doing credit card fraud have gotten increasingly riskier. While
some aspects of the business remain the same-using mostly services such as
Western Union and MoneyGram to move cash around, with some movement to Bitcoin
and Perfect Money. By recruiting someone in the same area as a victim's billing
address and providing them with the data required to create a fraudulent credit
card, the criminal organizations dodge computer-based fraud detection algorithms
and put the risk of detection largely on the shoulders of the person trying to
pick up the item in the store. Much of the year, that might be a coin-toss for
success. But as Heid put it, "The fall isn't just the shopping season for the
holidays-it's the shopping season for fraudsters" because seasonal retail
employees often aren't trained to spot fake credit cards and retailers are more
concerned with dealing with volume than clamping down on potentially bad
transactions.
arstechnica.com

Nationwide
Protests Call for $15 Wage Thousands of low-paid workers and their
supporters marched in protests on Thursday that called for a $15-per-hour
minimum wage, with some walking off their jobs, USA Today reported. Employees of
dollar and convenience stores, home health care aides and certain airport
workers joined the protests, which occurred in 190 cities in 35 states. The
"Fight for $15" campaign held its first protests in cities such as Jackson,
Miss.; Knoxville, Tenn.; and Buffalo, N.Y., and approximately 650 federal
contract workers walked off fast-food jobs at major landmarks. Events were also
planned at airports in New York, New Jersey, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Boston,
Minneapolis, Oakland, Calif., Fort Lauderdale, Fla., Seattle and Atlanta.
csnews.com

FCC Panel Targets Smartphone Thefts - 1 Million a year in U.S. - Holding
Carriers Responsible More than a million smartphones are stolen every
year and federal regulators want wireless carriers to do more to deter the
thefts. That was the theme of a report released Thursday by a Federal
Communications Commission advisory panel. The group focused on how the wireless
industry can better work with law enforcement and other groups to cut down on
thefts by making stolen smartphones less useful. The report, using Federal
Bureau of Investigation and other law-enforcement data, estimates that more than
10% of thefts and robberies in the U.S. in 2013 were associated with mobile
devices. FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler, speaking Thursday at a meeting of the panel,
called smartphone theft "a national problem" that requires a national solution.
Wheeler plans to write to the chief executives of the wireless carriers
Thursday, sending them a copy of the report and asking to hear back within 30
days on their plans for implementing the recommendations.
wsj.com

Global Bitcoin network spends $296M on Black Friday and Cyber Monday - 9th
biggest payment network in U.S. Visa, MasterCard, American Express and
PayPal were the leading payment methods, while Black Friday saw $152 million
spent on Bitcoin compared to $144 million on Cyber Monday. That's impressive
when taking into account the currency is only five years old and is still
growing with respect to merchant and consumer adoption. Industry observers are
cautious about
the emergence of bitcoin into the payments landscape and there are few
established retailers that have adopted it as a way for their shoppers to
transact.
essentialretail.com

Retail Sector Employment Has Nearly Reached Prerecession Levels, Ahead of
Critical Holiday Season There were 15.4 million retail workers in
October, just shy of the record of 15.5 million workers reached in 2007.
Before dismissing all of these new jobs as low-skilled, low-paying sales clerk
and cashier jobs, remember that the shift toward online shopping means retailers
are hiring more and more app developers, IT
security professionals, online and social media marketing teams (and)
logistics engineers as analysts to collect, sort and interpret all of that data
collected with each mouse click," Challenger Chief Executive John A. Challenger
said in a news release. Editor's Note: We highlighted IT Security
professionals for a reason.
wsj.com

Feuding continues in the Family Dollar - Dollar
General - Dollar Tree love triangleEditor's Note: This is one of the biggest fights in retail and will
impact thousands of people and hundreds of stores. It's end result will have a
huge impact on the retail landscape. As the small store push in retail right now
is really the only growth channel available in the U.S. And once Walmart
Neighborhood Markets gets going with their pharmacies and all the grocery stores
continue their pharmacy push we might see a similar fight in the drug store

November
Same Store Sales Results
Gap Inc.'s up 6%, Gap Global down 4%, Banana Republic Global up 2%, Old Navy
Global up 18%

Quarterly Same Store
Sales Results
Ulta Beauty Q3 up 9.5% with total sales up 20.5% - e-commerce comparable sales
up 46.7%
Canada's Dollar Rama Q3 up 5.9% with sales up 12%
J Crew Q3 up 4% with revenue up 6%
Genesco Q3 up 3% with net sales up 8%
Five Below Q3 up 1.5% with sales up 25%Big Lots Q3 up 1.4% with net sales up 0.2%
Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores Q3 down 2.3% with net sales up 0.7%
American Eagle Q3 down 5% with net revenue down slightly

All the News - One Place - One Source - One Time
The D&D Daily respects your time & doesn't filter retail's reality

Newly inducted into the NRF's honorary
"Ring of Excellence,"Dan Doyle,
Chief Human Resources Officer at Beall's Inc., provides his vision of leadership
as a 25+ year veteran of the LP industry. Describing loss prevention, at its
core, as a "people business," Dan talks about the difference between passion and
emotion and how maintaining an even keel helps one navigate the unpredictable
nature of the retail business.

Episode Sponsored By:

LPNN
Quick Take

In this LPNN Quick
Take, Amber meets up with Protection 1's Rex Gillette, the VP of
National Accounts Retail. Hear from Rex about Protection 1's breaking news and
how they keep their staff's skills sharp and in the know.

Solution Providers, have a video or
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Contact us.

Stay Tuned for our New 2015 Get LP Social Column!

LP Team Group Selfie
RecapCheck out our submissions from this year as
we showcase each one again!
We have a lot of exciting new ideas coming in 2015 so get your
LP Teams together for a picture!
Your team could be seen right here on the D&D Daily!

PetSupermarket's LP Team*Originally published on July 3, 2014
View all the selfies
here!

Three 2014 Group
Selfie LP Teams have the chance to win Pizza Parties! Drawing will be at our
Live in NYC event on January 12th.

RCMP
urge caution after woman attacked and robbed in central Alberta RCMP
in central Alberta are warning women to be on guard for their own safety after a
young woman was kidnapped, robbed and sexually assaulted. Police say a
20-year-old woman was leaving her job shortly after midnight at a hotel on Red
Deer's gasoline alley, when a man came to her driver's side door and brandished
a knife. According to police, the man forced the young woman to get in the
passenger seat and he drove to a bank where he took her to the ATM and forced
her to withdraw money from her account. RCMP say he then took her to a rural
location near Penhold where he sexually assaulted her before driving her back to
Red Deer and dropping her off at a convenience store. Police say he then left
with her vehicle. The woman's SUV was later recovered at a construction site on
the west side of gasoline alley.
globalnews.ca

Lens & Shutter the victim of an over night burglary in Kelowna, BC; tens of
thousands of dollar of inventory stolen After losing tens of thousands
of dollars of equipment in an overnight break-in is warning other retailers to
stay vigilant. Store Manager Jaime Paniagua says he got a call shortly after 4
a.m. that the alarm at the store was ringing. "I made my way there and the RCMP
were here already," says Paniagua, who notes the culprits were already gone.
"They broke the lock and then made their way through the store. They took some
GoPros, and then they went into two of our cabinets, and behind the counter,
removed the glass...and took professional high-end cameras and lenses." The
stolen goods taken were primarily out of box, new cameras and lenses by Nikon,
as well as boxed GoPro cameras. Besides the loss of product, the store also
suffered damage to the door and glass shelves within.
castanet.net

Highlights:
● Total monthly retail sales changed by 7.1 per cent over the comparable month
last year.
● Total sales excluding food, automotive and gasoline changed by 5.7 per cent
over the comparable month last year. Read more
retailcouncil.org

Hackers Prime Target: Apple Pay
The Inquirer quotes a Kaspersky report which says that as Apple Pay gains in
popularity- it will make its European debut next year-attempts to breach its
security measures will grow as well. The report notes that NFC systems have been
attacked prior to Apple Pay's launch, but the gains made by criminals have been
limited by the limited use of such systems. The report noted Apple Pay's focus
on security, "but we'll be very curious to see how hackers will exploit the
features of this implementation."
pymnts.com

The Invisible ATM Skimmer
Cyberthieves are now bypassing traditional ATM "skimmers" and wiring directly
into a cash machine's own card-reading hardware through a hidden hole in the
ATM, TechCrunch reported on Monday (Dec. 1). According to the European ATM
Security Team (EAST), banks in two European countries recently reported ATM
breaches that work like this: Thieves cut a small hole in the front of the ATM
near the card reader, at a point normally covered by a decal or sticker. They
then insert a wiretapping device through the hole, wire it into the the card
reader, and finish up by covering the hole with a new decal. The wiretap device
is then removed later by the thieves to harvest card data. Unlike most skimmers,
which either overlay or slide into a card-reading slot, physically connecting to
the ATM's own read head will likely be undetectable, at least without poking at
the replacement decal.
pymnts.com

"Fraud is not a person - it is a dynamic grouping of statistics
that deviate from the norm."
Stuart B. Levine, CFI, CFCI
CEO, The Zellman Group & Zellman Fraudnet

Reporting
of ORC Skyrockets as New Laws Force Feed Reporters Nationwide With A New Phrase
- 'Organized Retail Crime' For so many years the retail LP
community and the retailers themselves have struggled, debated, and fought over
the subject and extent of organized retail crime in the U.S. In the 90's it
actually divided our industry. With one group refusing to give it any special
recognition and fighting over giving it it's own phrase and assigning actual
positions to fight it. Then in the 2000's we saw a group of retailers start to
develop the effort and teams that allowed the retail industry as a whole to
clearly see that indeed ORC not only exists but that its a major component of
our nations shrinkage issues. Simultaneously of all of this the internet and
online auction sites sprang up and to put it mildly, all hell broke lose. ORC
took off and the criminals found their fountain of youth. No longer were they
relegated to flea markets, pawn shops, convenience stores and back alleys. Now
they had the internet and the ability to unload their loot anywhere, any time and
to anyone world wide. And to add to all of this we had a new criminal pop up.
The honest guy jumped in and became the 'seller.' Before the internet the vast
majority of these people would have never gotten involved. They didn't have the
guts or nerve required to actually go out and sell stolen merchandise on the
street. But what they did have was a computer and the nerve to go shoplifting.
Now most may have indeed become criminals sooner or later but the net gave them
a push and it sucked them right in. With that development we saw ORC take off
like never before and the recession in 2008 played a big role in it's growth as
well, that we're all dealing with today. Now with 26 states finally having ORC
laws on the books, a movement that only began in 2005, what we're seeing is a
gradual educational process, a nationwide public awareness to ORC is beginning
to take hold, with the nation's reporters starting to see ORC cases traveling
through the judicial system they're now starting to report on it. Where as
before they reported it as shoplifting, serial shoplifters, professional
shoplifters, and repeat offenders. While that still happens in most cases, we are
starting to see the term ORC used more and more in the nation's news agencies.
And quite frankly right now we're seeing a huge uptick in the phrase virtually
everywhere. In effect these new laws, the actual growth of ORC, and all the work
the 30+ ORC associations are doing, is making an impact and making a difference.
The nation's journalists are becoming aware of the problem and they're reporting
on it more and more. In our opinion the reporting of ORC has skyrocketed in this
quarter alone. And that, Ladies and Gentlemen, will help significantly with
educating the legislators in the remaining 26 states and ultimately at the
federal level as well. What we need next - Coming next week. Gus Downing

Skyrocketing numbers of ORC cases since
mid-November
In the last few weeks the Daily has highlighted the efforts of major ORC
Operations in Florida and Arizona; 'Operation Holiday Heist' in Polk County,
Florida, 'Operation Holiday Steals' in Broward County, Florida and 'Operation
Fade to Black' in Meza, Arizona teamed Retailers and Law Enforcement together to
record 159 arrests. While these high profile operations send a strong message to
the communities, they also build the teamwork efforts between retailers and law
enforcement, and identify ORC groups and fencing operations, but we at the Daily
wanted to take a minute to compile the numbers from the rest of the country.
Since mid- November, 57 cases of Organized Retail Crime have been reported in 29
states, 123 arrests and a total of $3,448,959 was reported recovered. Florida
leads the way with 8 additional ORC cases reported, New York with 5 and Michigan
and Texas at 4. But not every ORC cases happens in the high profile states;
Wisconsin, Ohio, New Hampshire, Idaho, and Utah as well as many others have
reported major cases.

Florida - 8

New Hampshire - 2

New York - 5

Utah - 2

Michigan - 4

Pennsylvania - 2

Texas - 4

Ohio - 2

California - 3

Minnesota - 2

Wisconsin - 3

Louisiana - 2

Massachusetts - 2

Additional cases in 16 other states.

This message is not to downplay the importance of high profile Operations,
but to focus of ORC skyrocketing numbers across the country. In many companies,
Loss Prevention has been tasked to do more with less and it appears that
Nationwide the bad guys are not always winning the fight.

Gangs Flying Shoplifters Into Britain - People Trafficking - Modern Slavery
According to a report in the Independent, Eastern European victims of people
trafficking are being exploited by criminal gangs to carry out weekends of
high-end shoplifting before being returned home on block-booked budget airline
flights, in a new trend of modern slavery identified by Scotland Yard. UK-based
gang leaders are marshalling groups of up to 20 people brought over from
countries such as Poland and Lithuania on cheap flights to target designer shops
during trips lasting just a few days, detectives said yesterday. The gangs
accept a 20 per cent arrest rate as the cost of a "weekend trafficking"
operation that can secure items worth up to 100,000 pounds that are then taken
out of the country for resale. Suspected thieves who have given statements have
told police that they have been coerced into carrying out crimes out of fear
about what would happen to their families if they refused.
ukcrs.com

Organized crime rings are making millions peddling the most innocuous white
powder there is, and the street value is surging. Ubiquitous and with a surging
street value, infant nutritional supplements remain one of the most shoplifted
items in the U.S., fostering a steady stream of organized crime syndicates that
confound law enforcement agencies and retailers across the country.
"In the big spectrum of retail crime, infant formula is one of the top items,"
says Joe LaRocca, formerly of the National Retail Federation,
now with RetaiLPartners. "Grocery chains will tell you that formula is targeted so often that in some
cases they have locked it up, moved it behind the cash register, strategically
put it on the floor, and in some cases they put a limited supply on the shelves.
With individual cans going for as much as $10 on the black market, drug addicts
and other low-level thieves stalk the aisles of Walmarts and other retail chains
looking to swipe Enfamil or Similac, which can sell for as much as $100 in
stores. In the last month alone, baby formula bandits have cropped up in
California, Michigan, Texas and New Jersey.
Some of the more enterprising crooks go to great, and even comic, lengths to
turn a tidy profit. One brazen mother-daughter team in
Michigan last month
allegedly filled garbage cans with baby formula inside the stores they targeted,
stealing up to 30 cans at a time. In July,
two men dressed in women's clothing
were busted at a Rite Aid in Glendale, California, after trying to walk out with
their purses full of formula. In July, a Florida sting dubbed "Operation
Got Milk" netted at least 23 arrests and toppled a $2 million
baby formula syndicate led by a middle-aged woman. Authorities in
Oregon
stopped a similar scheme in 2010 when they arrested a couple
that had traveled up and down the West Coast stealing $2.5 million
in baby formula. In recent years, raids in California, Texas and
Arizona have disbanded other lucrative rings.
vocativ.com

Update - Online ad for Canada Goose jackets leads police to parka theft suspects
arrest in Winnipeg - Actual Smash & Grab posted on Daily An online ad
offering Canada Goose jackets for sale and publication of suspect photos have
led to the arrest of four people. More than 40 Canada Goose jackets worth more
than $15,000 were stolen from an outdoor clothing store in the 2000 block of
Corydon Avenue on Nov. 16. Thieves got into the business by smashing the front
window, police said. A 35-year-old man was arrested after an online ad offering
Canada Goose jackets for sale led police to a business in the 700 block of
Selkirk Avenue where the parkas had been taken. The man was charged with
possession of property obtained by crime. After police made surveillance photos
of two women public on Monday, a 29-year-old woman was arrested and also charged
with possession of property obtained by crime under $5,000. Police then searched
a suite in the 500 block of Young Street at about 2 p.m. Tuesday and charged
another man and woman in connection with the crime. globalnews.ca

ORC Duo arrested for counterfeit credit cards, prescription fraud, skimming,
distribution of drugs, stolen identities - over 100 charges Vincent
Leo, 37, was arraigned in Essex Superior Court on dozens of charges. The schemes
involved fraudulent prescriptions, thousands of oxycodone tablets and numerous
counterfeit credit cards, and compromised more than 50 identities, according to
the AG's office. According to authorities, Leo was involved in a credit card
fraud scheme with Deana Vitale, who used a skimming device at Copper House
Tavern in Waltham to capture customers' credit card information. Vitale then
allegedly gave the device to Leo, who used the information to create fraudulent
credit cards in those customers' names. "We allege that this defendant ran
various sophisticated schemes involving fake prescriptions, the distribution of
drugs, stolen identities and counterfeit credit cards," Attorney General Martha
Coakley said in a statement. "This lengthy and extensive investigation has led
to more than 100 charges in connection with his illegal activities."
wickedlocal.com

ORC male duo arrested targeting major retailers throughout Florida with
counterfeit checks The two men had extensive criminal histories and
had amassed more than 45 arrests with 107 criminal charges between the two of
them; mostly for fraud and identity theft related crimes. The suspects also
indicated that they had intended on shopping in Lee County. A search of the
vehicle revealed a large amount of counterfeit checks containing the banking
information of unsuspecting victims. These checks were made by the suspects with
legitimate bank routing numbers belonging to victims of identity theft. The
suspects both had fraudulent driver's licenses matching the names on the checks.
The licenses had their photographs on them. The suspects had failed to mention
that they were planning on shopping using other people's banking information
when they were stopped. In total, 21 counterfeit checks were recovered saving
local retailers tens of thousands of dollars in losses as well as the victims
whose account numbers were used. The investigation revealed that the suspects
were operating throughout Florida targeting major retail establishments. The
investigation revealed the driver, Terrance Haines of Bradenton, and passenger
Dontrell Warren of Tampa were traveling from the Tampa to Fort Myers when they
were stopped.
nbc2.com

Possible theft ring hits Ada, OK Walmart
Authorities are investigating the theft of nearly a dozen Apple iPads from a
local department store Ada police were called to Wal-Mart in Ada Wednesday
morning. The Loss Prevention officer "stated two males used keys to enter a
locked case in electronics, while two other males kept other associates busy who
came near the area." "He stated there have been numerous reports of the same
thing happening in more Wal-Mart stores around the state of Oklahoma," Reid said
theadanews.com

10 to 20 year prison term upheld for man convicted of threatening Bon Ton Loss
Prevention officer with butcher knife in PA According to court
records, Paul Matthews, 61, of York, was tracked on security cameras trying to
steal three polo shirts from the Bon-Ton in Springettsbury Township in March
2013. When he left without paying for the shirts, loss prevention officer Peter
Fouad detained him and brought him back into the store. Matthews became agitated
while in the store security office, "brandished a large butcher knife, holding
it above his head in apparent preparation to stab Fouad," and demanded that the
officer release him, Judge Victor P. Stabile wrote in the state court's opinion
on the case. Matthews fled, but was soon captured by police. He was convicted of
robbery, simple assault and retail theft during a non-jury trial before county
Judge Richard K. Renn. In the state court opinion, Stabile rejected Matthews'
argument that the evidence wasn't sufficient to support his robbery conviction.
pennlive.com

FBI offers $15K reward to help nab 'Oxycodone bandit' hitting Va. drugstores -
hitting CVS & Rite Aid Investigators think one person is responsible for
the robberies, which have occurred in Henrico, Hanover, Arlington, and Prince
William; and the cities of Fredericksburg, Williamsburg, Hampton and Newport
News. The robber, who has targeted CVS and Rite-Aid drugstores, approaches the
pharmacy counter with a white cloth over his face and reveals a black handgun
tucked in his waistband to the pharmacist. The suspect then demands Oxycodone
pills and cash from the register before running from the store.

● July 15 - CVS located on Woodman Road in
Henrico County

● July 26 - CVS located on Charter Gate Drive in
Mechanicsville

● August 13 - CVS located on Jefferson Davis
Highway in Fredericksburg

Ex-employee embezzled nearly $300,000 from store at Pismo Beach, CA outlets
A former employee of the As Seen On TV store in Pismo Beach was ordered Thursday
to pay close to $300,000 in restitution for embezzling money during the four
years she worked there as a manager. Kwi Eng Ee, 60, of Nipomo had pleaded no
contest in July to two charges of grand theft over $950. According to a court
document, Ee, also known as Irene Ee, was hired as a supervisor in 2009 for $11
an hour, working 30 hours a week. In 2013, however, she was fired for
misconduct. The store's co-owner, James Foss, told police Ee had created a
hostile work environment that exposed the employer to potential liability.
Around that time, Foss and his wife, Stacey, began to look at Ee's timecards and
sales sheets. They determined that of the $875,172 in cash taken in between
September 2009 and June 2013, the store was short $286,742. Stacey Foss said Ee
told customers that she owned the store, which was formerly located at the Pismo
Beach Premium Outlets. Once charged, Ee took responsibility early on, said Ee's
attorney, Matt Guerrero. After entering her plea, she was sentenced to a year in
jail and five years probation. At Thursday's restitution hearing, Superior Court
Judge John Trice ordered Ee to pay the Fosses close to $300,000.
sanluisobispo.com

Wal-Mart employees arrested on theft charges in Portage, IN
Two Wal-Mart employees were arrested Thursday and a third is suspected in the
theft of hundreds of dollars of merchandise from the store. The three had been
seen on surveillance video on several occasions "price matching" and voiding
items for one another and others at each other's cash registers. The three are
thought to have stolen more than $750 in merchandise.
nwitimes.com

Possible
suspect in armed robbery of Fresno, CA gun store arrested Fresno
police arrested a man who may be one of two armed bandits who robbed a north
Fresno gun store Thursday morning. Two men wearing masks - one with a Mardi
Gras-type mask - and armed with semiautomatic handguns entered Fresno Firearms
at 6573 N. Blackstone Ave. around 10:30 a.m. and took an unknown number of
weapons. A suspect, identified as Nick Delt, was taken into custody at the home,
Lt. Joe Gomez said. Gomez said Delt is being questioned as a possible suspect in
the gun store robbery.
abc30.com

Eureka, CA Police recover Stolen merchandise following store break-in
The Eureka Police Department is investigating the break-in and theft of
merchandise from an Old Town Eureka clothing store. Police said on December 2,
2014 around 6:30 a.m. officers responded to a commercial burglary alarm at a
store on the 200 block of F Street. Officers discovered two unknown suspects had
forced their way inside the business and had taken off carrying numerous items
of Merchandise. The following day around 8:36 p.m., officers along with
detectives of the Problem Oriented Policing unit responded to an apartment on
the 800 block of A Street. They conducted a probation search as part of a
follow-up investigation to the burglary. Officers said when they knocked on the
door and announced themselves, the suspects took off. Officers forced entry and
detained three subjects. During a search of the residents and associated garage,
detectives found numerous articles of designer clothing with tags still
attached. The owner of the store was later contacted and identified the clothing
as property stolen from the store.
krcrtv.com

Woman, 25, arrested after pocket-dialing 911 and is overheard describing crime
This is one cellphone butt-dial that backfired, big time. Ashley Malcom
allegedly stole a variety of crystal meth ingredients from a New Smyrna Beach,
Florida Walmart and then had the bad fortune to pocket-dial 911 while riding in
a car away from the scene of the alleged crime. The 911 operators proceeded to
listen as Malcolm, 25, allegedly described to the car driver how she needed to
get rid of the items she had shoplifted to make crystal meth. Apparently, Malcom
was attempting to enlist the driver's help in moving the items. However, the
driver wasn't charged in the case. On the 911 call, Malcom is heard saying to
the driver: "You weren't inside Walmart stealing. They don't have your face.
They don't have anything." Ah, but they did. Just prior to Malcom's unknown 911
call, a Walmart loss prevention officer had called 911 to report the
shoplifting. Putting two and two together, deputies were soon on Malcom's tail.
pennlive.com

UK:
Bizarre 'Hypnosis Robbery' at Shop in London A thief apparently put a
shopkeeper in a hypnotic trance before stealing the day's takings at a store in
Highgate, north London. Security footage shows the man, wearing black bomber
jacket, gently tapping shop owner Aftab Haider - who is known to friends as Aziz
- on the arm, before making a stabbing gesture with his hand at eye level that
appears to leave Mr Haider in a trance. The man then reaches inside the
shopkeeper's trouser pocket, pulling out his wallet. He then squeezes his
shoulder before miming the gesture of a pregnant woman's belly before Mr Haider
turns to face him, at which point he reaches into his other pocket and takes
hundreds of pounds in cash.
breitbart.com

"Keep It Simple." What a phrase that we've all heard a million times and, quite
frankly, most of us don't take it seriously enough. So many tend to over think
and over do that, at times, we just don't get things done. Ken Blanchard said in
one of his books that if you expect or even want perfection, you'll never get
anything done. We all tend to over think and in our desire to do what's best, we
can get lost in details and stand in the way of moving forward - most of which
is as a result of just plainly not having enough confidence in one's self to
just risk it and go for it. Hesitation is human nature and wanting to make sure
you get things exactly perfect - well somebody's going to pass you by with the
answer - that's simple, but brilliant. So keep it simple and have faith in the
bird on your shoulder.